According to Buddha
The journey from samsara to nirvana involves a passionate and deepening desire for a certain kind of self-sufficiency. Solitude needs more championing.
thunder only happens when it’s raining
players only love you when they’re playing
say…women…they will come and they will go
when the rain washes you clean… you’ll know, you’ll know
***
Edmonton, Alberta ~ September 2015.
According to Buddha
The impermanence of this floating world I feel over and over. It is hardest to be the one left behind.
***
Chickakoo Lake, Alberta ~ May 2015.
According to Buddha
Buddha-nature can also be understood as the primordial reality from which phenomenal reality springs or the changeless reality empty of only that which is other than itself.
a long, long time ago,
in the land of idiot boys,
there live a cat, a phenomenal cat,
who loved to wallow all day.
fum, fum, diddle-um di
la la la la, la-la la la
la la la la, la-la la la la
la la la la-la la la
According to Buddha
This body is not me; I am not caught in this body, I am life without boundaries, I have never been born and I have never died. Over there the wide ocean and the sky with many galaxies. All manifests from the basis of consciousness. Since beginningless time I have always been free. Birth and death are only a door through which we go in and out. Birth and death are only a game of hide-and-seek. So smile to me and take my hand and wave good-bye. Tomorrow we shall meet again or even before. We shall always be meeting again at the true source, Always meeting again on the myriad paths of life.
seven dances for the spirits
running a race, running a race
seven dances for the saints
running a race, running a race
looking for the stillness in the womb of space
boundless
boundless
***
Edmonton, Royal Alberta Museum and Blackfoot Provincial Park ~ April 2015.
According to Buddha
According to the logic of that old, deluded world, freedom means being at liberty to come and go as we please. Such a definition of freedom is often very useful to an oppressive regime. That is because freedom, if so defined, becomes something that can then be taken away. Tsunesaburo Makiguchi said no when offered his freedom because the offer itself was deluded. His captors, who thought they were free but in reality were the “thought prisoners” of an oppressive government and the victims of a degraded religious culture that had long since capitulated on the matter of basic human rights, therefore had nothing to offer him. He was free already.
are you a dancer in this world?
do you walk the sundance of life?
but all you wanted was to be…free
what i wanted was to be…me
***
Royal Alberta Museum ~ Edmonton ~ March 2015
According to Buddha
Normally, a view of the world is nothing more than a set of beliefs, a way to freeze the world in our minds. But this can never match Reality, simply because the world isn’t frozen. Nevertheless we carry on as though the way we’ve frozen it in our minds is the way it actually is.
the shallower it grows
the shallower it grows
the fainter we go
into the fade out line
***
Edmonton, Alberta, 2015.
According to Buddha
Embrace nothing:
If you meet the Buddha, kill the Buddha.
If you meet your father, kill your father.
Only live your life as it is,
Not bound to anything.
walking in the sunshine town feeling very cool
but the butchers and the bakers in the supermarket stores
getting everything she wants from the supermarket stores
apples and oranges
apples and oranges
***
Edmonton, Alberta ~ kitchen life ~ 2015.
According to Buddha
Sometimes, the thought of “I” suddenly arises with great force…The situation is like that of a rock or a tree seen protruding up from the peak of a hill on the horizon: From afar it may be mistaken for a human being.
***
Central Alberta ~ January 2015.
According to Buddha
The nature of everything is open, empty and naked like the sky.
i wanna make this play
oh, i know you’re faded
hmm, but stay, don’t close your hands
i wanna make this play
oh, i know you’re faded
hmm, but stay, don’t close your hands
stay open
stay open
stay open
***
Central Alberta, 2015.
According to Buddha
No peace lies in the future which is not hidden in this present instant. Take Peace.
not a creature was stirring not even a mouse
***
Edmonton, Alberta ~ December 2014
